It's been announced today that Sarahs Law, a scheme for parents to be able to check the backgorund of those who their children come into contact with is going to be rolled out to a further 18 areas, the scheme has been piloted in 4 areas including Stockton-On-Tees and there has been 315 applications with the outcome that concerns were confirmed in 32 of those cases.
One of the cases being cited is where a neighbour had begun offering sweets to children. The parent contacted the police who confirmed he was a registered sex offender banned from contacting children. However there are concerns that Sarahs Law may have a similar effect to a similar scheme in the US where one in five sex offenders have disappeared out of view where as currently in the UK there is contact with 97% of known offenders.
From a personal point of view as a parent it's a tough call as these stories always prey on the subconcious and our belief that we have to protect children, afterall it's what most of us are preprogrammed to do, but the underlying story here seems to suggest that this will cause more problems than it will solve. I don't know the answer, do you?
